By Chander Agarwal, EO New Delhi member and executive director of TCI

In this era of cut-throat competition, the most successful companies today are proactive, forward-looking and competitive; they keep on adding new and innovative products and services to their customers. What keeps them ticking in this race for market domination is their keen eye on anticipating emerging trends and opportunities, refocusing business strategy and vision, and aligning resources to maximize corporate performance through best-in-class business performance management solutions for competitive advantage.

It’s ultimately about using timely performance information to improve results, making quick decisions and more importantly correct decisions is what separates the competitor from the leader. Also, what comes into role here are the business practices adopted. The best practice for any business can be divided into six simple stages.

• Setting Realistic Objectives and Expectations: Defining business requirements — It is always better to define business goals and requirements that can be later measured. Each goal is set down clearly which is achievable so that the end results can be measured against it.

• Identifying the Right model to meet business objectives – Once the action plan has been developed, system selection can begin. Choosing the right model is a critical step.

• The Right Team for executing the action plan – to ensure a successful implementation, the project team must be comprised of team members with the right expertise. There are three factors that will dictate the successful implementation of the action plan: quality people, dedicated time and an appropriate number of people to complete the project. The Right Processes — Realizing system benefits – Although at this stage of the project, the right objectives and exp ectations, the right system and the right team are in place, it is time to fine-tune the processes.

• The Right Plan— Testing the system – Before putting your system into production, it is a given that it will need to be tested. To get the desired results, you must be certain that every operational process is tested.

• The Right Training— using the system effectively – If a system implementation fails, it often fails not due to a flawed design, but by ineffective use by system operators on the floor. One cannot make a system foolproof. Another key component of the training process is the need to convey information consistently and in accordance with the tested and proven design.

• The Right Timing and Support— Minimizing impact to your customers – I provide full support for the entire implementation project as I feel that the support must come straight from top leadership in an organization or else the challenge of learning the new system and the time and effort required may not seem worthwhile to the rest of the organization. I work to ensure buy-in at all levels and continue to communicate the benefits of the new system to those who will be impacted by the transition.